Not strictly an armor topic but I know some of you might be interested... anyway to copy over the post from model shipwrights - Well I jumped into something I never tried before. Scratchbuild something with limited references. Any of you that tried, know that this little battleship deserves more plasn, pics etc than what's available out there... So here's my little sneak preview; more to come soon

Cool, I love a good sceratch build and have a soft spot for riverine boats. I take it you'll be havily investing in Live Resin products. Best of luck and please keep us updated.

Very nice. I have always been interested in Brownwater craft and the modern version of the PBR is really cool. It looks great so far. Keep us posted on your progress.

Nice. I have seen the plans and all I can say is... good luck!

Mario

Thanks guys, I'd appreciate any input along the way. Mario's talking about the only 2 plans that I've found on the net. They came from USMI website and are pretty low res, but once scaled up they can be used. Here's a couple more (sorry about the pics I took them as I finished)

I've built the center line spar or rib or what it's called to provide rigidity and give basis to the bow. I will have to build it from bottom up since I haven't got any decent pics or references unfortunately...

Here is how I did a bit of work today. The main thing I had to go over again was making the top edge. I did this out of 1mm thick styrene sheet, but learned something the hard way. I cut out the shape with and then proceed to cut out the lifting points. doing this was in this order was wrong as the strain in the plastic broke the thinnest connecting points. So I had to start over:

1. Here's what I started with



2. Plans cut from paper





3. First cut out the lifting points and drill out the ladder receptacles. Now when everything's cut you can start cutting out the inside shape



4. Starting to look like a boat now...

Looks awesome! I like what you did with the side of the hull so the floor doesn't sit funny. Wish I thought of that...lol

Here's how I tackled the bow section of the hull.



Also, here's a few pics for the swimmer platform.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-IdtZO-wWPJ8/Tknxv8p4W7I/AAAAAAAAEpA/A9JoL-b6KO4/s800/066.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8Ohc8JMgwhQ/TxCqCbSvnMI/AAAAAAAAEug/ZBc4pUzdn4o/s800/094.jpg

Take care,
Austin

Thanks Austin, I couldn't have started it without your help.

I was just thinking how to address the bow. I guess I should have planned ahead the actual bulkhead placing/spacing (I figure it could have eased the build significantly).
I love it how you reversed the bulkheads to conform the shape of the bow (if you understand what I'm trying to say) so I'll give it a go

Mario,

Real nice build, some neat work with all that white card.

Austin,

Nice build also.

Chris.

I'm a bit stuck due to lack of references... So far I've figured out there are a couple of different mast setups. The Furuno radar dome is constant, the difference is the antenna base and the FLIR dome.

Here's what I'm talking about-the pics are cropped images I found on the Navy website:







Of course I chose the more complex one since I like to torture myself. I scaled the Riverine Assault Boat plans from USMI to get a top down view as I figured that the plan is the same as for the SOC-R



And this is what I ended up with:


Somethins feels off but I'm not sure what. I'm in scale according to plans but perhaps the FLIR base is wrong?

Looks good. I'd say it'll look a little off until you add the rest of the radar/flir.

Take care,
Austin

Here's a small upate:

1. A failed attempt - offered blood sacrifice to the gods - check!



2.Obtain proper teletubby shape from several attempts - check!



Anyway I'm fairy happy with the outcome, I laminated everything (8,5mm) and sanding the he out of it, instead of trying to connect 2 offsetting surfaces with a center strip which proved to be way too much hassle. I also resized the FLIR mount with the input from you guys. Looks much better, thanks!

Now I could use help for the 2 brackets in front of the two antenna bases on the top surface. Anyone got any idea on the shape or what's on it?

Mario;
FANTASTIC work so far. Looks great. It's odd, I was doing some research last week on this same craft, to build one also.
Looks like you've got it pretty well covered. Hope mine comes out as well. The Radar & Flir work is coming along good. Sorry
bout the acupuncture. LOL It happens. Part of our trade.
Have u thought of color? Gray or Camo. Keep up the progress, Sub'd and watching your build. Good Luck.!!

Sorry for the slow update, I guess too much food and drink during the holidays took its toll I wish everyone the best in the New Year and hopefully everyone got something plastic under the tree?

Anyway - milestones:
I managed to finish the bulkheads, although they are not pretty. Also the first prat of the bow covering is done, only to sort out the middle. I used 0.5mm thick sheet as it's firm enough and still pliable. Anything thinner and you get sagging between the bulkheads, and thicker just won't bend.







Also I waited a lot for the L profiles to finish up the sides. Now some more detailing awaits. They are not finished as I will be using epoxy to finish off the endings as they are not straigth



Also played a bit with some bolts. Mario Matijasic was the victim of a grand bolt robbery as I cleaned out his entire stash of Masterclub bolts. These are 0.5mm in diameter, so the drill bit kinda veered a bit while drilling but it's hard to see the not-so-perfect lineup while not in macro mode...



Also the teletubby got some more details. I'm finding out that perhaps this was a bad idea to do the top surface from styrene. I'm thinking in the ways of PE but I will have to see about that with a friend that makes his own about this. I used Djiti's resin antennae, but they suffer a bit from mold defects and are not that sharp, but they have the correct shape & size





Also check out the bolts - All of them are placed in pre-drilled holes, then cut down to appropriate size on the bottom. More to come soon and thanks for watching...

Dealing with the FLIR is turning out really hard, as I couldn't find any aftermarket set for the SeaFLIR III or the TALON series out there: this is what I'm talking about -



I thought it would be easy to scratchbuild but I overestimated my abilities so this is what I got; it's a rough approximate of the real deal as far as I could get:



the isolation collar, mounting plate disc and the gimbal assembly are shown here. The collar itself is really small and it's what I came up with again as a rough estimate.

and the main parts:





The FLIR ball is actually from a 1/48 super hornet AN/ASQ-228 LITENING pod chopped up a bit. I know it's not the same as the one I need but I figured it could be close enough for the ball in stowed position.

Here's how everything looks like just thrown together without glue...





Now I'd appreciate some honest input about this, am I going the right way with this or do I scrape it and start again?

That's awesome, great work.
I would like to buy one, are you going to produce one?

I thought the radar was circular... it's oval...ish...

Looks good, but is the FLIR sitting too high? Should the stuff in red be removed? (ref. pic below)



Regardless, you're making me want to put down my blackhawks and pick up my other SOC-R build...

Take care,
Austin

That did it I think. I took your advice and chopped off the base. A little rescribing and I think I've captured it (anyway better than before). I still need to drill out the lens openings and 3 small notches but I think I can move on from here...







nothing is glued and can be modified still if there's something I missed?


And here's something I've been building yesterday... Any ideas what this is?



And I appreciate all the input from you guys it really helps out
Cheers!

Nice! Since I don't recognize it, I'm guessing it is a water jet from under the swimmers platform...

Yup you guessed it
As I was telling John over there on Shipwrights, I hope this is what it will eventually look like...



Did you have any reference for the underside on your build?

Anyway I'm still trying to find out what the actual hamilton hj292 waterjet looks like. The US and the NZ websites give different pics to what it looks like.

And if anyone has pics of the underside of the swimmers platfomr looks like I'd really appreciate. I'm taking a lot of liberties with this one going mainly on the Hamilton general design notes (i.e. the transom plate which can but doesn't have to go on)so I'd like to confirm few issues...

Unfortunately I couldn't find any solid references either. Being that mine' in murky water, you can't see under the swimmers platform, so I kinda cheated

The start of the part looks convincing, as does your drawing.

Take care,
Austin

Well I got another big milestone done. Finally sealed off the hull and got a decent but rough profile. She finally looks like a boat now. I need to fill out some gaps and steps with miliput but other than that I think it will look OK. Any suggestions?

The bulkheads are somewhat visible but the lighting plays a big part in this. I figured some oil canning effect would be realistic enough anyway

And the lines between the 2 different hull planes are stretched sprue that will eventually be weld lines

Any progress? I'm about a week away from starting another one...

Take care,
Austin

Unfortunately no,as I'm still waiting for the PE to arrive but should have some update next week. What do you have in plan for the next one? Can't wait to see your boat though.